content tagged as Sensory Science

With childhood obesity and type2 diabetes on the rise, a spotlight has fallen on what and how much Americans are feeding their kids. Three speakers helped shed some light on the subject in a Monday morning session entitled “The Unique Nutrition and Feeding Needs of Infants and Toddlers.”

Characterizing Key Attributes of Various Proteins in Food Applications

In recent years protein has become the most important and preferred ingredient by all consumer segments. According to a Food and Health survey conducted by the International Food Information Council (2016), protein tops the list of nutrients people want to consume. In the past two years there has been an increase of about 63% in new products with some kind of protein claim. Globally this number is even higher: approximately 85% (Inova 2017).

Proteins from various sources are increasingly available for application in various food products. Depending on its source, protein plays three major roles in food products: taste, nutrition, and functionality. More and more consumers are interested to learn about value of proteins derived from various sources. This symposium is being organized with the objective of characterizing various properties of proteins derived from different sources (e.g. milk, whey, pea, potato, soy, rice, etc.). Eminent subject experts will provide the latest updates on the research that is being conducted in this area.

*Our thanks to Axiom for their sponsorship of the Alternative Protein Deep Dive programming*

What You See and What You Taste: Color-Flavor Interaction in Product Development

Color influences the taste, aroma, and acceptability of foods and beverages. People are visual and color is used as a clue to identifying foods. Usually, when the color is congruent or appropriate, flavor is often correctly identified. This has been studied across different applications like beverages, white vs. red wine, and spicy salsa. Incorrect coloring will create an expectation that is not matched by the food, resulting in misidentification and decreased acceptability. Using appropriate colors in foods helps to design foods which give expected flavor. Colors also influence basic tastes like perception of sweetness or heat for example, sweetness can be reduced by coloring the beverages with yellow, and this can help with sugar reduction in the application. Sometimes adding unexpected colors can also pique the customer’s interest and hence can be used to one’s advantage. Flavor reduction or enhancement can be carried out in nutritional beverages/foods depending on the requirement.

Color also affects flavor perception depending on how the flavor is inhaled, either orthonasally (by nostrils) or retronasally (by mouth). Also the color may be intrinsic (e.g., colored beverage) to the object being smelled/tasted or extrinsic (package color) and both these can influence the flavor perception. There are different possible mechanisms by which the color-flavor interactions occur and these will be discussed. Cognitive influences also affect how colors and flavors are perceived. So far, little research has been carried out on how cognitive and contextual constraints may mediate color–flavor interactions. The discrepancies demonstrated in previously-published color–flavor studies may reflect differences in the sensory expectations that different people generate as a result of their prior associative experiences. Color–flavor interactions in flavor perception cannot be understood solely in terms of the principles of multisensory integration (the currently dominant theoretical framework) but the role of higher-level cognitive factors, such as expectations, must also be considered.

*Our thanks to Compusense for their sponsorship of the Sensory Science track*

Flavors of Food Protein Ingredients and Their Applications in Product Formulation

Plant proteins are important protein sources to meet the nutrition demands of the increasing population. Flavor is an important aspect of food ingredients, including protein ingredients, that dictates consumer acceptability of the final food products. Even though great progress has been made in the off-flavor control of soy protein, off-flavor of many plant protein ingredients remains a major limiting factor for their use in food products. Protein ingredients from different sources that carry unique flavor profiles, which can be influenced by the processing and storage conditions. In addition to their intrinsic flavors, protein ingredients interact with flavor compounds and influence the overall flavor profile of the final products when used in formulation or flavor encapsulation. This symposium aims to cover the intrinsic flavors of protein ingredients as well as their interaction with other food components that affect product flavor profiles. The odor and taste of protein ingredients and the effects of processing on protein flavor profile will be addressed in the first two presentations. The first presentation will be an overview of the off-flavor in pulses, which will also provide background knowledge for audiences who are not familiar with protein flavor or flavor chemistry. The second presentation will report the findings from ongoing research on rice protein flavor. Protein-flavor interaction and its influence on food formulation will be discussed in the third presentation. The fourth presentation will report on sensory evaluation studies of plant protein-based food products that are currently on the market. It will provide an understanding of how different attributes of protein ingredient influence consumer liking and how the information can be used in formulation to meet consumer needs. The topics will be of interest to audiences both from the food industry and academia who are working with protein ingredients or sensory evaluation.

Benchmarks, Hurdles, and Metrics to Compare Products and Categories: Is There a Right Way to Set a Standard for Success?

Benchmarking is a tactic to assess how a given product matches up to competitors or standards in the marketplace. It can be used to establish sensory or business practice for the desired user experience. Benchmarking may be used to define fundamental, baseline metrics for a product, which allows for a form of performance tracking over product iterations. The benchmarking approach can be derived from a comprehensive series of quantitative studies all the way through to simple category review done in a small qualitative setting. Depending on the needs and risks, benchmarking can give the business informative design decisions to drive product design and user experience.

The goal of this curated symposium, the third in a series, is to present IFT members with a dialog between industry professionals on truths and myths behind practices that are thought to be commonly agreed upon approaches. In the case of benchmarking, knowing what the category benchmarks are for a given product may help the cross-functional team understand their strategy for product design, development and communication. There is a different point of view that the use of benchmarks that are general can hobble the same product design effort. Different disciplines in product design have varied perceptions regarding the value and approach to benchmarking. The Sensory and Consumer Sciences Division (SCSD) has selected a number of practicing professionals to discuss this area and provide understanding to both the division membership and the greater food and beverage product design and development community on the status of this area of interest.

*Our thanks to Compusense for their sponsorship of the Sensory Science track*

The Use of 'Omics' for Evaluating Meat Quality

This session will explore the use of “omics” type approaches for improvement of meat quality, specifically, genomics and metabolomics. In large part genetic make-up dictates meat quality through the preferential gene expression towards traits which influence meat quality. Furthermore, specific metabolites can directly influence meat quality factors, such as color and flavor. Measurement of small compounds or metabolites is somewhat novel for the meat science area. Numerous factors are known to impact meat quality. However, in many cases it is known why these factors influence meat quality. More recently “omics” approaches have been utilized to develop this understanding. This session will describe relationships of genomics with meat quality and relationships between specific metabolites with meat color and flavor.

*Our thanks to Compusense for their sponsorship of the Sensory Science track*